Rumour: sub-£100 Xbox 360 this week

New 60GB Xbox 360 model launches on Friday

Will we see a sub £100 Xbox 360, as retailers ditch their old 20GB stock this month?

The Xbox 360 gets a notably bigger 60GB hard drive later this week (Friday, August 15th), with the older 20GB versions being phased out.

The new Xbox 360 will retail at the same £199.99 price point as the current 20GB model. With three times its predecessor's hard drive capacity, it is ideal for filling up with all those free games demos from Xbox Live.

No word yet on any planned discounts for the 20GB version – but TechRadar has contacted Sainsbury's, Tesco, Zavvi, HMV, Amazon, Play.com, GAME and Gamestation to find out if there are any Xbox 360 bargains to be snapped up in the near future.

Somewhat strangely, Tesco has no current plans to stock the new 60GB model, so we can only assume that they are currently sitting on a lot of 20GB Xbox 360 stock.

Depth and breadth

"No one device offers the depth and breadth of entertainment that Xbox 360 can deliver and we know consumers need increasingly more and more space to store the amazing digital entertainment content we provide," said Microsoft senior regional director for entertainment and devices division, Neil Thompson.

"Now the Xbox 360 has triple the space to house all your entertainment needs at no extra cost."

Microsoft's Xbox 360 Arcade (with a 256MB memory unit and five Xbox Live Arcade games) currently retails for £159.99, the new standard Xbox 360 60GB hard drive retails for £199.99, and the Xbox 360 Elite, with the big ol' 120GB hard drive at £259.99.

Sony's new 80GB PS3 launches on August 27th at £299 and Nintendo's Wii is still priced at £179, with no real need for Nintendo to get involved in price cutting, as they are still bound to sell out this coming Christmas. Again.